continued  "I am extremely proud of the girls and the opportunity that has been put in front of them," Long said. "It is a trip that I will be able to enjoy through them. They deserve to be here."

Long said that the week of preparation started out Monday, March 11, dealing with things like media requests and paperwork required by the state.

"We have had to deal with paperwork, hotel plans, bus scheduling, roster forms, setting up practice times and everything else that we need to be ready for when we get down there," Long said. "The rest of the week is about working on the things we need to do based on the personnel that we are going to see."